Calvin & Hobbes is easily my all-time favorite comic, and Bill Watterson was able to beautifully offer thousands of life lessons through the 10 years of C&H comic strips. Freelance cartoonist Gavin Aung Than has designed this fantastic Comic Tribute to Bill Watterson, and posted it on his site, Zen Pencils.

The quote used in the comic is taken from a graduation speech Watterson gave at his alma mater, Kenyon College, in 1990. Brain Pickings has a nice article about it. The comic is basically the story of my life, except I’m a stay-at-home-dad to two dogs. My ex-boss even asked me if I wanted to return to my old job.

My style is already influenced by Watterson, but this is the first time I’ve intentionally tried to mimic his work. It’s been fun poring through Calvin and Hobbes strips the past week while working on this comic and it was a humbling reminder that I still have a long way to go.

The quotes I’ve used in the write-up above are taken from the introduction to The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection, which sits proudly on my desk.

So, why am I posting this on Cool Infographics? I want to pose the question: Should we consider this to be an infographic?

There’s no numeric data. No charts. No data visualizations. No call to action.

However, there is information. The information source is Bill Watterson’s speech from 1990, and the illustrations do a great job of communicating the message visually. The image layout follows the tall infographic style that is easy to share online.

My own opinion is that “Yes” this is an infographic. What do you think?

Reader Comments (2)

Its a great comic telling an important story; yes even an important lesson.But not the traditional infographic which usually includes data, graphics and numbered items.Still a great contribution to coolinfographics.com.